Intercontinental and transoceanic fixed links
A fixed link or fixed crossing is a persistent, unbroken road or rail connection across water that uses some combination of bridges, tunnels, and causeways and does not involve intermittent connections such as drawbridges or ferries. A bridge–tunnel combination is commonly used for major fixed links. This is a list of proposed and actual transport links between continents and to offshore islands. See also list of bridge–tunnels for another list of fixed links including links across rivers, bays and lakes. History Cosmopolitan railway In 1890 William Gilpin first proposed to connect the continents by land via the Cosmopolitan Railway. Significant elements of that proposal, such as the English Channel Tunnel, have been constructed since that era. However, the improvement of the global shipping industry and advent of international air travel has reduced the demand for many intercontinental land connections. Trans-Global Highway The Trans-Global Highway is a range of highway systems proposed by futurist Frank X. Didik that would link all six of the inhabited continents. People could drive cars from Australia to California via Russia and Alaska. People from New York could drive to London via Greenland. The highway would network new and existing bridges and tunnels, improving ground transportation and potentially providing a conduit for utility pipelines. However, in the Discovery Channel's "Extreme Engineering", it was noted that the Chukotka area is mostly roadless and uninhabited, and infrastructure would need to be developed completely from scratch. Chukotka is on the Eurasian side of the Bering Strait, where the highway would connect to North America via tunnels. Transatlantic highway The transatlantic tunnel is a theoretical tunnel that would span the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe possibly for the mass transit. Some proposals envision the advanced trains reaching speeds of 500 to 8,000 km/h. The tunnel envision between the United States and United Kingdom - or more specifically between North America and London. Advantages compared to air travel could be increased speed and the use of electricity instead of oil-based fuel, considering after the peak oil. The main barriers of constructing such a tunnel could be cost, with estimates of between $88 billion and $175 billion, as well as the limits of current material science. Existing major tunnels, such as Channel Tunnel, Seikan Tunnel and Gotthard Base Tunnel, despite using less expensive technology than any project for the transatlantic tunnel, struggle financially. The proposed tunnels could be a tube above the seabed, beneath the ocean floor or combination of two. It can be a vactrain, where the same meaning can also be called "Vacfresh", or a jet propulsion using rocket and jet. Asia South East Asia Mainland Peninsula Malaysia is connected to Penang Island by two road bridges: Penang Bridge and Penang Second Bridge. To the south, it is linked to Singapore Island across the Straits of Johor by the Johor–Singapore Causeway and the Malaysia–Singapore Second Link; the former also carries Malaysia's West Coast Line to the island. There are also plans to link Java, the most populated state in Indonesia towards the Sumatra on the Sunda Strait Bridge, the Malaysia and Indonesia along the Malacca Strait Bridge and the Indonesia and Singapore along the Singapore Strait crossing. Taiwan The Taiwan Strait Tunnel Project is a proposed undersea tunnel connecting Pingtan in China and Hsinchu in Northern Taiwan as part of the G3 Beijing-Taipei Expressway. The project has been the source of some controversy because of Taiwan's political status. The People's Republic of China claims Taiwan, but does not currently administer it, so therefore does not have any control of its highways. As Taiwan does not recognize the highway designation by the People's Republic of China and has its own highway system, the Taiwan portion of the expressway has not been constructed. Aside from politics, the other challenge is the engineering difficulties in constructing the link through the Taiwan Strait. A bridge seems less likely than an undersea tunnel, which would have to exceed 100 kilometres in length. This is further complicated given the climatic and weather conditions across the straits. Korea-Japan Since the Korean War travel overland from South Korea and North Korea to China and Russia were blocked, South Korea maintains ferry services to China and Japan. The Korea-Japan Friendship Tunnel System is a proposal for the fixed link from Fukuoka in Japan to the port city in Busan in Korea via four islands. The maximum ocean depth in this area is 146 m (480 feet). Similar proposals have been discussed for decades by Korean and Japanese politicians. A road bridge links Kyūshū to the main Japanese island of Honshu. The Seikan Tunnel has provided a rail link from the main Japanese Island of Honshu to the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido since 1988. The proposed Sakhalin-Hokkaido Tunnel would link Hokkaido to the Russian island of Sakhalin. When combined with the proposed Sakhalin Tunnel between Sakhalin and the Russian Mainland and an extension of the Baikal Amur Mainline this would give a rail link from Japan to Russia and the mainland of Asia. Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge is a bridge that links Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau in China. It was opened on October 24, 2018, it was then the longest fixed crossing in the world. Timothy North Even for Timothy North, it is connected towards the Dongguan area through the two crossings - the Western Expressway with the checkpoint at Shoes West and the North-South Expressway with the checkpoint at Changlun. The third crossing is under consideration, whereas towards the Tengah area - it connects towards the Tengah Bridge. Asia to America Bering Strait bridge or tunnel There is a proposal is to span the Bering Sea with a bridge or tunnel called the Intercontinental Peace Bridge, the TKM-World Link or the AmerAsian Peace Tunnel. This would link the American Cape Prince of Wales, with the Russian Cape Dezhnev. The Bering Strait Tunnel would consist of 3 tunnels connecting Alaska and Russia by going through two islands (the Little Diomede (USA) and Big Diomede (Russia)). The longest single tunnel would be 24 miles (40 km). Since the Bering Sea at the proposed crossing has a maximum known depth of 170 feet (50 m), the tunnels might be dug with conventional tunnel boring machines of the type that was employed in the construction of the Channel Tunnel. The three tunnel proposal is considered to be preferable over a bridge due to severe environmental conditions, especially the inescapable winter ice damage. Each proposed tunnel would be shorter than some current tunnels. The Channel tunnel linking England with mainland Europe is approximately 31.34 miles (50.45 km) long; the ocean tunnel Seikan linking Hokkaidō with Honshū in Japan is 33.46 miles (55.86 km) long; and the Swiss Gotthard Base Tunnel through the Alps, opened in 2016, is 35.7 miles (59.60 km) long. To make a bridge or tunnel useful, a road or railway must be built to connect it, despite very difficult climate and very sparse population that makes roads less economically motivated. In Alaska a 700 mile (1,100 km) link would be needed, and in Russia a link more than 1,200 miles (2,000 km) long must be constructed. Until around 2010 such road connections were suggested by enthusiasts only, but at that time both the Russian government and the Alaskan state government started considering such roads. Europe English Channel There is no highway connection between Great Britain and the European mainland; only a rail connection, the Channel tunnel. A cross channel rail tunnel was first proposed in 1802 and construction actually started in 1881 before being abandoned. Roll-on Roll-off ferry services provided links across the channel for vehicles. A road tunnel was proposed in 1979, but not considered viable. Construction of the Channel Tunnel started in 1988 and the tunnel opened in 1994. Automobiles and lorries/transport trucks are loaded onto the Eurotunnel Shuttle's enclosed railway cars (similar to auto rack/motorail railway cars) for the trip through the tunnel, however. A service tunnel runs the entire length of the crossing, but is closed to general use and used only during emergencies and for maintenance. Irish Sea Various ferry services link Ireland with Britain and France. A number of options for the Irish Sea fixed crossing have been proposed for over the years but none are in currently serious consideration. North America Long Island 9 bridges and 13 tunnels (including railroad tunnels) connect Brooklyn and Queens, onto the Long Island, Manhattan and State Island and towards the Bronx and Newark. Ferries connect Suffolk County onwards to the Long Island Sound and westward to the state of Connecticut. There have been various proposals to replace the ferries into a fixed link connecting Long Island Sound.